Professor’s family is internet sensation

March 14 was a rather extraordinary day. An American international relations professor teaching in Busan, South Korea, got an opportunity to become news instead of a mere commentator when his children gatecrashed his live interview with BBC via Skype.

The video, featuring four-year-old Marion and nine-month-old James and their mother, former yoga teacher and housewife Jung-a Kim, who is a Korean national, was put online by BBC after the channel obtained requisite permission from Robert Kelly, associate professor at Pusan National University.

Kelly was to speak on the impeachment of the country’s first female president Park Geun-hye on BBC World News when the mishap occurred. The children appeared, soliciting his affection, even as he tried to multitask desperately, directing Marion towards a pile of toys and, in the process, revealing his comfortable denim trousers which were supposed to have remained out of camera view.

That was when the mother came into view, crouching but failing to keep out of eyeshot while removing the kids from the room. However, all’s well that ends well. Kelly’s urgent apology mail to BBC was met with reassurances and the video, posted on BBC’s Facebook page, got over 84 million views in less than 24 hours.

Thanks to the video, the family members are now internet heroes. “We are happy that our family blooper, our family error on television, brought so much laughter to so many people,” Kelly, in a news conference later, said.

Kelly (44) hails from Cleveland, Ohio. He moved to Korea in 2008. His wife, Jung, is Korean. Kelly has written for Foreign Affairs, The European Journal Of International Relations and The Economist. He has been interviewed on network television for other outlets, including CNN, as well as CNBC, Sky News and ITN. He has also tried his hand at screenwriting, speaks eight languages and enjoys classical music.

Views on News, unique magazine that monitors and takes a critical look at the challenging, competitive world of Indian and global media every fortnight; and Akbari, a weekly newspaper in Hindi and Urdu.